The foothills of the Otsuki Mountains.

Lushan pine is vigorously covered with weirs, and the branches are bent to the iron, and there are bursts of pine waves from time to time. In the garden of the villa, more than ten magnolia flowers are in full bloom, beautiful and white, exuding bursts of fragrance.

Xiao Weilie turned one year old a few days ago, and his grandmother specially held a birthday banquet for him, inviting many celebrities and gentry from Jiujiang. When he caught Zhou, Xiao Weilie first picked up the toy to look at it, then put it down again, then opened the book curiously, and finally held an abacus and kept fiddling.

The guests congratulated Zhou Hexuan one after another, saying that the Zhou family was going to produce another big businessman. Zhang Leyi was a little unhappy, she hoped that her son would study and learn after a long time, and that he would be more respected as a literate person than a businessman.

Zhou Hexuan didn't believe in catching Zhou, he thought that his son chose the abacus because the abacus was noisy, and the child felt very funny.

Compared with his sister Zhou Lingjun's liveliness and activity, Xiao Weilie is much more introverted and quiet. He learned to walk at the age of ten months, but he was always too lazy to move, and every time he was put on the ground by an adult, the little one stood still and stood motionless for a long time.

Zhang Leyi often worries that her son has intellectual problems, but the truth is the opposite. Although Xiao Weilie looks a little stupid, he learns to walk and speak very quickly, and even taught him a few Chinese characters a few days ago, which is quite a sign of a child prodigy.

In the garden, Zhou Hexuan hugged his son to read and write, pointed to the calligraphy and said: "This is water, read it with my father - water!" ”

Xiao Weilie was stunned for a long time, looking up at the birds on the branches of the pine tree, his eyes were full of curiosity about the unknown.

"Alas, forget it, you kid knows to be in a daze." Zhou Hexuan smiled bitterly. He felt that his son was a child prodigy, so he wanted to train him early, but now it seems that it is too early.

The bird chirped and jumped from branch to foliage, and suddenly flapped its wings and landed on the branch of another pine tree.

"Yikes!" Little Veret suddenly became excited, pointing at the bird and dancing.

Zhou Hexuan had an idea, and took the opportunity to educate: "Wei Lie, that's a bird." Read with Daddy – Birds! ”

"Birds!" Xiao Wei Li repeated, and the pronunciation was slightly non-standard.

Zhou Hexuan pointed to the bird again and asked, "What is that?" ”

Xiao Weilie was stunned, and suddenly replied, "Bird." ”

Zhou Hexuan couldn't cry or laugh, not only happy for his son's cleverness, but also speechless for his son's slow and half-beat temperament.

Just as the father and son were interacting, Zhang Leyi suddenly came to the garden: "Brother Xuan, the second brother has sent the ferry ticket, and it will set sail at one o'clock tomorrow afternoon." At your beheed, I specially bought a ticket for the steamship China Merchants Bureau. ”

In the early 30s, there were four major shipping companies in the Yangtze River Basin, namely Jardine Matheson in the United Kingdom, Swire in the United Kingdom, Nissin in Japan and China Merchants Steamship Co., Ltd. in China. Among them, China Merchants has the smallest market share, and the freight and passenger business in the Yangtze River basin is basically in the hands of Britain and Japan.

The boycott of foreign goods was very popular in the Republic of China, and Zhou Hexuan naturally had to respond to the call for patriotism.

Zhou Hexuan didn't talk about the boat, but pointed to the bird and said to his son: "Wei Lie, tell Mom, what is that?" ”

Little Verita was habitually dumbfounded for two seconds before replying, "Mother, bird." ”

Zhang Leyi smiled, picked up her son dotingly, and praised: "Wei Lie is so smart! ”

A family of three was enjoying the joy of family, when suddenly the maid came to report: "Master, wife, there are three gentlemen outside to visit." ”

"Invite them in." Zhou Hexuan commanded.

Because the first birthday banquet for Xiao Weilie was held at Zhang's house a few days ago, many people in Jiujiang know that Zhou Hexuan lives in Lushan, and there are more than one or two who come to visit him.

The three people who came to the door today surprised Zhou Hexuan a little: Li Siguang, director of the Institute of Geology of the Academia Sinica, Hu Xianqiao, director of the Plant Department of the Beiping Peaceful Biological Survey Institute, and Wu Zongci, a famous historian.

Among the three, Wu Zongci took the lead, clasped his fists and said with a smile: "Mr. Zhou, I took the liberty to disturb!" ”

"Where, where," Zhou Hexuan asked with a smile, "Why did the three of them come to Lushan collectively?" ”

Li Siguang said with a smile: "Brother Bu Zeng (Hu Xianqiao) and I were both pulled by Mr. Irin (Wu Zongci) to inspect Lushan. As soon as I arrived in Jiujiang, I heard that Mr. Zhou was also in Lushan, so I stopped by to visit one or two. ”

After Wu Zongci explained in detail, Zhou Hexuan finally figured it out.

It turned out that Wu Zongci used to be engaged in education and running newspapers, and he ran newspapers with Cai Yuanpei, Zhang Taiyan, Yu Youren and others. After the Xinhai Revolution, he began to enter politics, presided over the drafting of the constitution, and also served as a middle school principal, and was a well-known historian and historian.

In recent years, due to the warlords' chaos and the people's lack of livelihood, Wu Zongci was deeply disappointed with the current situation, and then withdrew from politics and began to save the country through industry. He co-founded three mining companies, all of which collapsed due to turbulence and foreign defaults.

Just last year, Wu Zongci was invited to Lushan to take charge of the Guling Transshipment Company, a subsidiary of the Leping Mining Company. When he learned that Lushan had not renewed the mountain chronicles for more than 200 years, Wu Zongci had the literati attribute in his blood, and resolutely resigned from the position of general manager of the company and began to compile the "Lushan Chronicles".

Li Siguang and Hu Xianqiao were both invited by Wu Zongci to investigate the geology and biological conditions of Lushan on the spot.

Zhou Hexuan invited the three of them to the living room, and Zhang Leyi personally made tea and served it.

Zhou Hexuan was the president of Peking University, Li Siguang was the head of the Department of Geology of Peking University, and Hu Xianqiao graduated from Beijing Normal University (the predecessor of Peking University) and is now a professor of botany at Peking University. As for Wu Zongci, well, this gentleman is even older, a person from the capital, a veteran of the revolutionary party.

Wu Zongci was born in a family of eunuchs, his grandfather was an official to study for a bachelor's degree in the cabinet, and his father was a soldier in Langzhong. He himself was also the first in the imperial examination and the second in the palace examination, and it was not a problem to become a senior official in the future, but he actively participated in anti-Qing activities, and ran a newspaper with Zhang Taiyan, Yu Youren, and Cai Yuanpei to advocate revolution.

I think back then, Wu Zongci must have been a man of the hour, but unfortunately he is now dying. And because he was disappointed with the current situation, he took the initiative to quit politics, and I don't know if he regretted giving up his family to make a revolution back then.

The first topic of the four of them was Beiping, talking about the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Xiangshan and Peking University. Then they began to talk about scholarship, Wu Zongci and others greatly admired Zhou Hexuan's "General History of the World", and talked about the French Revolution and the October Revolution in the Soviet Union.

Chatting and chatting, Zhou Hexuan suddenly heard something, and hurriedly ran back to the study to take out pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and said with a smile: "Three of you, please!" ”

"Hahahaha!"

Hu Xianqiao couldn't stop laughing: "It turns out that what is said is true, Mr. Zhou likes to find people everywhere to write." ”

Li Siguang got up and grinded and said, "Then I will be ugly, but unfortunately I didn't bring a seal with me." ”

Wu Zongci is worthy of being the first scholar in the imperial examination and the second in the palace examination, this old gentleman has a deep foundation in regular calligraphy, and is not weaker than those well-known calligraphers. Li Siguang and Hu Xianqiao are also very powerful, although one is a geologist and the other is a botanist, but their calligraphy is enough to make Zhou Hexuan embarrassed.

Especially Li Siguang, who is a celebrity in the field of painting and calligraphy collecting. The only collaborative painting left by Xu Beihong and Zhang Daqian was completed at the invitation of Li Siguang - Zhang Daqian painted lotus flowers, and Xu Beihong made up water ducks on the painting.

Zhou Hexuan happily put away the calligraphy of the three of them and asked, "The three of them want to investigate in Lushan, have they ever had a foothold?" ”

Wu Zongci said: "We live in the Guling Transfer Company. ”

"That's too far," Zhou Hexuan took the initiative to invite, "It just so happens that I'm empty here, so it's better for the three of us to move in, so it's convenient to do an investigation." I arranged the two rooms on the first floor, one for Mr. Li to make a mineral herbarium and the other for Mr. Hu to make a herbarium. ”

Li Siguang said happily: "That's just right, so as not to waste time running up and down the mountain." ”

Hu Xianqiao clenched his fists and said: "In this way, it will be disturbed!" ”

Wu Zongci, Li Siguang and Hu Xianqiao moved in the next day, and Zhou Hexuan, who had planned to leave Jiujiang, simply asked people to refund the ferry ticket, and followed Li Siguang and them to investigate minerals and plants during the day, and compiled the "Lushan Chronicles" with Wu Zongci at night.

It was not until late May that Zhou Hexuan set off with his wife and children, and the Chinese version of "Titanic" has been officially published.